Umar quoted a statement signed by Mr Garba Shehu, the Senior Special Assistant to President Muhammadu Buhari on Media and Publicity, on the new NITDA boss appointment and others.

The appointment of Abdullahi was sequel to the nomination of Dr Isa Pantami, the outgoing director general of the agency as a minister designate by the President.

Abdullahi until his appointment was a principal officer at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) who was on secondment to NITDA as a Technical Assistant to Pantami.

Born on Feb. 21, 1980, Abdullahi is a graduate from the Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi state and the fifth director general of NITDA.

He, in the past worked with the Galaxy Backbone Limited and has a number of professional certifications.

Other appointments by the government according to Shehu, included Sen. Basheer Mohammed who replaced Mrs Sadiya Farouk as Federal Commissioner, National Commission for Refugees,Migrants and Internally Displaced Persons.

NITDA presents national outsourcing strategy to stakeholders

The National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) on Thursday presented its draft on National Outsourcing Strategy for Nigeria (NOSN) to stakeholders in an online engagement workshop for a better service delivery.

The Director-General of NITDA, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, said at the workshop in Abuja that the aim was to ensure the effective implementation of the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (NDEPS) of the Federal Government.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the strategy is a follow up to the Nigerian National Outsourcing Policy, which was launched in 2007.

Inuwa said that in 2019, Grand View Research had valued the global business process outsourcing market size at 221.5 billion USD and at a compound annual growth rate of eight per cent from 2020 to 2027.

He said that outsourcing market due to COVID-19 had forced organisations to cut cost by leveraging on the benefits of outsourcing for some business processes and focus on core competencies.

“Players in the business compete by providing reliable and cost-effective services across industries and sectors such as government, healthcare, manufacturing, IT and telecommunications.

“NITDA embarks on this journey to accelerate digital economy and transformation targeted at creating over a million jobs in Nigeria by 2025,” he said.

The director-general added that the strategy was in line with government initiative and priority projects such as the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan and digitisation of government services.

According to him, the strategy will lift Nigerians out of poverty and transform the country to a knowledge-based economy in the wake of the current global pandemic.

He stated that the strategy implementation processes focused on seven pillars, which included development of infrastructure, skill and human capital, branding and promotion, digital finance and incentives.

He said others were innovation and entrepreneurship, trust, privacy and security, as well as multi-stakeholder governance engagement.

Inuwa called on the stakeholders to synergise with the agency to make Nigeria a better place and a force to reckon with in the global business outsourcing market.

“We have our competitive edge in the market, but to create and capture value in the global market we need to own this strategy and make it easier to implement by all,” he said.

Mr Ben Ewah, the Deputy Director, e-Government Development and Regulations Department of the agency, while elaborating on the expectations of the strategy, said it was designed as a response to COVID-19pandemic.

Ewah said the strategy would target the onshore and offshore outsourcing markets and promote local, foreign direct investments in digital outsourcing infrastructure development.

“The outsourcing strategy will develop an export-oriented digital product and service industry with improved funding of Research and Development.

COVID-19: NITDA boss tasks ICT experts on post-pandemic innovations

Mr Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General, National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), has called on ICT experts in Africa to prepare for post-Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic innovations that would boost economies.

Inuwa made this appeal during the Africa Tech Leaders webinar series organised by Digital Jewels, with theme: “COVID-19 Pandemic: The Africa Leaders’ Outlook”, monitored on Tuesday night in Abuja.

He said it was obvious countries across the globe, including Africa, were embracing digitisation as alternative means of boosting their ecomomies with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Digital transformation has positively played a big role during this pandemic in accelerating the trends of digital technologies and how it will also help us to address the changes.

“The promising silver lining in this pandemic is accelerating technology trends and shaping the future of digital economy and transformation in general.

“It is time Nigerian and African technology experts got ready for innovations and ideas after the world might have defeated the Coronavirus that is ravaging our economies,” he said.

Inuwa said that President Muhammadu Buhari, on assumption of office in 2015, set up a committee on Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), which identified ICT as a key enabler.

He also said that the Ministry of Communications was redesignated to Communications and Digital Economy in 2019 to help achieve targeted objectives toward digital growth.

The NITDA boss further said the agency, in that line and since the emergence of COVID-19 pandemic, had initiated some programmes to cushion the economic impact of the disease.

“We initiated Nigeria COVID-19 Innovation Challenge that brought innovators together to proffer digital strategies and how to contain the spread of the virus and prepare us for post–COVID-19 era.

“The Federal Executive Council set up a policy that is being cascaded to Ministries, Departments, Agencies (MDAs), while NITDA is issuing regulatory instruments that can help MDAs to perform its work better.

“We issued guidelines, standard and frameworks for government policy makers and other stakeholders to deliver their technological services efficiently,” he said.

He reiterated that NITDA made sure all IT projects from MDAs were being cleared according to the law, guaranteeing the value for money and local content compliance, which aligns with National e-Government Masterplan.

According to him, NITDA has conducted extensive capacity building training for MDAs and citizens in general on how to adopt and embrace digital technology.

Dr Isa Pantami, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, has called on the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) and other agencies to source research grants to support digital innovation on COVID-19.

Pantami made the call on Thursday in a virtual demonstration of NITDA’s Innovation Challenge on COVID-19’s possible solutions monitored in Abuja.

NAN also reports that the NITDA committee on COVID-19 Innovation challenge was set up in April 3 and they received 1,519 applications, while the best five were selected to demonstrate their solutions.

The first three successful applications were awarded and they include Algorizmi Health, an application that would address scaling up the availability of ventilators as first position.

Smart Disinfection Chambers, an application on smart tunnel for disinfection of perdons entering a location stood out at second position.

MyClinic.ng, an application that enhances remote patient management took the third position.

The solutions were accessed based on potential impact of innovation with regard to COVID-19, adaptability, scalability, creativity and presentation skills.

The minister recalled that President Muhammadu Buhari, last year launched the National Digital Economy Strategy which was expected to be implemented between 2020 and 2030.

According to him, part of the strategy was to focus on promoting research and innovation locally.

“NITDA, the Nigerian Communications Commission, other parastatal agencies under the ministry should look into their budget and find a way of raising research grants for the support of innovative ideas.

“Their support should be basically on digital solutions because we need to promote research to eradicate COVID-19 in Nigeria, Africa and globally,” Pantami said.

He awarded the first three successful entries with N1,000,000, N750,000, N500,000 respectively and urged NITDA to facilitate the incubation of the solutions for COVID-19.

Pantami also urged NITDA to facilitate making a presentation of the solutions to the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 for possible ways of leveraging them to address the pandemic in the country.

COVID-19: FG commissions virtual academy centre to boost learning

The Federal Government on Wednesday commissioned a virtual academy learning centre, an initiative of the National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Dr Isa Pantami,the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, while commissioning the academy, in a Webinar monitored in Abuja, said it was part of FG’s efforts toward building the country’s economypostCOVID-19 era.

The academy would be supervised by NITDA in collaboration with Microsoft, Oracle, CISCO, Huawei and Harvard University among others.

The group leaders said the inauguration and unveiling of the broadband plan was timely, adding that it came at a time when oil, the country’s major income generation was facing global downturn due to the ravaging Coronavirus (COVID-19).

They said that Pantami’s appointment was justified, having displayed high level of competence toward turning the sector to economic hub of the nation.

According to them, the sector will in a couple of years rival the current national earnings from the oil sector and surpass same, given the relentless efforts of the minister to revolutionise the communications sector.

They recalled that Pantami, as Director-General of Nigeria Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA), performed creditably well, saying such accounted for the high hopes that he would perform as a minister.

“At NITDA, Pantami’s innovations significantly helped the industry and the Nigerian nation to grow the IT sector.

“His successor, Inuwa Kashifu Abdullahi, is building on the successes recorded

to help grow the nation’s IT sub-sector,” the leader said.

They urged the minister to double its efforts on repositioning and transforming the communications industry which recently assisted in slashing the data rates for consumers.

The TWG also urged the minister not to pander to the threats of the dissidents and Boko Haram elements who were out to frustrate him.

The group leaders decried allegations that Pantami was waging proxy war to undermine Prof. Umar Danbatta, the Executive Vice-Chairman, Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC).

In a related development, Dr Henry Nkemadu, the NCC Director of Public Affairs, said that no agency of the Federal Government gives subvention to another agency.

“By extant laws of the government, every agency makes its budget and gets approval for appropriation from the National Assembly, and such budgets are spent according to the appropriation of the National Assembly,” Nkemadu said.

He said in a statement that the NCC budget does not contain any allocation for subvention to a sister agency, adding that they could not create a provision in the budget for another agency to implement.

According to him, subventions to all agencies are done by the Federal Government with resources domiciled in the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF), even salaries to Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDA) come from there.

He said that NITDA, as an agency of the government, also draws its budget and spend same to execute programmes.

Nkemadu said that the minister had since the advent of the new administration encouraged good working relationship and close synergy with parastatals under the purview of the ministry.

He said that the minister had facilitated support at the highest levels of government to programmes and activities of the commission.

“The minister facilitated meetings with the Nigeria Governors’ Forum on issues of Right of Way for expanding the telecommunications infrastructure and declaring telecommunications infrastructure as Critical National Infrastructure (CNI),” he said.

Nkemadu said that they do not receive any directive from Pantami and digital economy on funding any activity of NITDA and no approval was given in that regard.

He said that NCC had not entered into any partnership with NITDA to warrant any subvention for capacity building let alone implementing one.

Nkemadu said that aspect of creating budget for subvention does not arise.

FG will leverage on ICT to create jobs –Pantami

Minister of Communications and Digital Economy Isa Pantami says the government will leverage on Information Communications Technology and Entrepreneurship to increase job creation for the youth.

The minister made the promise at the inauguration of members of the Advisory Board of the Abuja Team for Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

“Like most of African nations, 60 per cent of the population is youth; but there are not enough regular jobs (in government or companies) for the population.

“Though we have a good base of small and medium entrepreneurship, we need to play in the new economies for they are the drivers of future job growth.

“While regular small and medium entrepreneurs may employ from five to 10 persons, a scaled-up entrepreneurship can make that number 50 or more,’’ he said.

The minister said that the Regional Entrepreneurship Acceleration Programme was not a short-term gimmick but that which actions emanating from it can begin to take root now.

Earlier, Mr Kashifu Inuwa, the Director-General, National Information Technology Agency (NITDA), commended the minister for this great initiative and assured the minister that the agency would work closely to achieve the best.

Inuwa, who has been advocating for the adoption of digital technological skills in the educational sector, was made one of the co-champions of the initiative.

Nigeria News Agency reports that the purpose of the programme is to adopt the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s proven frameworks on accelerating innovation to create localised strategies for developing and sustaining enterprises.